The most recent report penned by landmark researchers Thomas Gruen and Daniel Corsten furthered their deep understanding of the OOS problem in grocery retail. In this case, they’ve highlighted what might be looked at as the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel…one that’s actually a train. Online availability (OLA), or its inverse, Not […]

National Grocers Association (NGA) and FMS Solutions Holdings released their 2018 Independent Grocers Financial Survey June 12th and the 139 respondents cited that despite increasing competition and labor and benefit cost, along with deflation, sales and revenue pressures eased over the year leading to future optimism. Three things stand out to us from what was […]

In case you missed this in this weeks’ Progressive Grocer newsletter: https://progressivegrocer.com/7-things-grocers-can-do-make-ecommerce-mainstream Retail grocers have opportunity (and a bit of work to do) for shoppers to embrace them in the online world, according to this article from Randy Hofbauer of Progressive Grocer. His seven things definitely makes sense to us here at Itasca, starting with […]

Before you read further, let this huge nugget sink in. It’s NEGATIVE BOOK VALUE of INVENTORY we are talking about. In other, even more impactful words, elimination of inventory on your balance sheet. How much additional profitability could that add to your bottom-line? What else could you do with an influx of capital to that […]

99.5% OSA — Not A Number We Take Lightly 5 out-of-stocks for every 1,000 items! Unheard of – until now. 1,700 stores across North America use Itasca Magic to optimize inventory including: Wegmans, Sobeys, Price Chopper and others. The final result? Imperious guest satisfaction! One way these retailers get there is by managing vendor services levels with […]

Shrink. Almost no one wants to spend time hearing or worrying about this retail reality. Whether it’s from damage, theft (internal or external), spoilage, date-coded product, or bad ordering, shrink is a bane to profit, and it’s not easy to fix. Itasca retailers have a different experience. Think truck-to-shelf. Product is handled once before the […]

Itasca Show Business 2018 As 2017 winds to a close and we look forward to 2018, the buzz in the grocery industry continues to revolve around how to deal with the 800-pound gorilla that is eCommerce, Amazon and Walmart. Itasca’s operational excellence in-store translates directly to improving your customers’ eCommerce experience. Find out how we […]

Recognition of the need for understanding inventory levels in a grocer’s supply chain, and especially on-line when an order is being placed, has rapidly become the hot topic-of-the-day. And for good reason…it’s vitally important to retailers’ success in a world where they are relative newcomers – compared to what they know about the physical shelf. […]

What Amazon Might Not Know About On-Line Fulfillment Download the Click-Confirm-Collect Gold Paper THE BLOCKBUSTER announcement last week from Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market has analysts and the business media buzzing about a potential new era in online grocery ordering. Never Pay for Inventory Again! Made possible with superior computer-generated ordering technology, and using the Supply […]